Our group is: Nihaya Basha, George Knapman, Fiona Koetsier and Tony Whitmore. Throughout this project, we have all contributed equally to the advancement of the project as a whole. We used a combination of role delegation and creative sponteneity, sometimes working alone on separate pages, and at other times collaboratively on the same page. Each of the group members brought their own specific skills and knowledge into this process, with all members benefiting from the pool created. We have researched some specific modes of CMC in language learning, while at the same time participating in a computer mediated collaborative TBL environment. Thus we have been able to reflect experientially on task based learning while building our Wikispace, noting the ways that communication takes place. One of our team members, herself a non native speaker of English, was very useful in this reflective process. We have maintained regular weekly Tuesday night Skype conferencing meetings, and throughout the project, have used a combination of voice, text chat, e-mail and message board to communicate. Of course, since we all live in different countries, this has been the only option. By using computer mediated communication, we have been able to share knowledge and skills and watch with pleasure as our wikispace has evolved into something we can be collectively proud of.
(June 8th, 2008)
Reflection on the group TBL wikispaces project
Personal Reflection - George.
Well I just want to say how much fun I had working on widgets and code. It took up a lot of time but was great. I really learned a lot about wikispaces and feel like I could successfully co-ordinate students in similar tasks. I got a bit bogged down at times, but it was all worth it. I learnerd how to use wikitext, embed videos from other sites, use communication widgets, create and embed podcasts, upload audio and video to the site, manipulate and edit images, and access RSS feeds. I think I might have left out a few things, but well... I learned a lot. This part of our assessment was a lot more engaging for me than the first half and I really think that small groups are better than large groups in online learning. This project was motivating and creative. I'm not sure it was motivating because of the group aspect, or because of the creative element. For me, probably the opportunity to be creative is most important. I expected the collaborative aspect to be more difficult than it actually was, and all the members of my team were very easy to work with. I think one good thing about collaborative projects like this one is that it enables participants to reveal their own skills within a group framework. Each member can do what they are good at doing, and the result is somehow greater than the sum of the parts.
Personal Refections - Tony
Firstly, thanks to Fiona, George and Nihaya for their fantastic contributions to this project. George is responsible for the overall look and feel of this website, and I think he did fantastically well. Fiona is what I call a 'project driver' who kept us all on-track, and often referred us back to the assessment criteria. Nihaya always had something positive to contribute to our discussions. Like George, I really enjoyed the collaborative aspect of the project. I will quite miss our Tuesday night Skypechat sessions. I did find that some aspects of the project were very time consuming. For example, editing of Wikispaces is not difficult, but it can be a bit laborious fiddling with formatting etc. It was also difficult to keep the content concise, because there is such a vast pool of information out there. On the other hand, there is not yet a significant body of rigorous teaching research backing the value of some CMC technologies in primary and secondary education (Skype for example). Nevertheless, I hope to incorporate the concepts we covered into my teaching in future.
Personal Reflection- Nihaya
We worked as a collaborative team where each of us examined how one type of new technology can enhance language learning outside the classroom. We shared ideas together and references. We decided to meet online every week until we finished the project. In the beginning I was not sure of what we were doing. But eventually things came clearer when we all discussed the topic together. Fiona came up with the idea and we all thought it was a good one. Having the divided tasks between us was a very good way of collaborating. We all put an effort. I had help from my colleagues while I was sometimes stuck. We used emails to communicate as well as online chat and calling. The wiki was our space to present our findings. To me, having a space online where I could see what my other team members were doing was a helpful thing. Seeing them do their tasks has helped to motivate me more to look for more things. I had in mind that I was not the only one doing this task and I needed to do well in order for others to succeed. It was not easy doing the task as all of us live in different countries and have different times. Looking for references was a bit hard for me but my colleagues suggested sites that they thought were useful so I looked at them and used them. I felt I was not alone all along. I would like to thank George who gave me so much guidance in how to fix my mistakes, Fiona for always reminding us to be on task and Tony who helped me a lot with my references.
Personal reflection - Fiona
Apart from the initial stress of feeling like we were all looking for ‘dates’ this assignment has been a really enjoyable and productive one. We were all keen to make this project relevant and useful to our daily teaching contexts and I think we are all quite proud that our wiki is a reference that will continue to be a great resource for us all as well as a reminder of the exciting potential of new technologies. This unit initially felt quite overwhelming for me as I have always felt a bit technologically challenged. However, this collaborative experience was empowering and has been a terrific learning experience for me and I thank George, Nihaya and Tony for making this last assignment of my masters such a positive one. I’m not sure when it disappeared, but during this assignment I have lost the kneejerk, fearful reaction to an ICT challenge that I don’t immediately understand. As group members we have worked well together, achieving a good balance between us – all of us receptive to and appreciative of others’ contributions. Thanks guys.
Group Statement
Our group is: Nihaya Basha, George Knapman, Fiona Koetsier and Tony Whitmore. Throughout this project, we have all contributed equally to the advancement of the project as a whole. We used a combination of role delegation and creative sponteneity, sometimes working alone on separate pages, and at other times collaboratively on the same page. Each of the group members brought their own specific skills and knowledge into this process, with all members benefiting from the pool created. We have researched some specific modes of CMC in language learning, while at the same time participating in a computer mediated collaborative TBL environment. Thus we have been able to reflect experientially on task based learning while building our Wikispace, noting the ways that communication takes place. One of our team members, herself a non native speaker of English, was very useful in this reflective process. We have maintained regular weekly Tuesday night Skype conferencing meetings, and throughout the project, have used a combination of voice, text chat, e-mail and message board to communicate. Of course, since we all live in different countries, this has been the only option. By using computer mediated communication, we have been able to share knowledge and skills and watch with pleasure as our wikispace has evolved into something we can be collectively proud of.
(June 8th, 2008)
Reflection on the group TBL wikispaces project
Personal Reflection - George.
Well I just want to say how much fun I had working on widgets and code. It took up a lot of time but was great. I really learned a lot about wikispaces and feel like I could successfully co-ordinate students in similar tasks. I got a bit bogged down at times, but it was all worth it. I learnerd how to use wikitext, embed videos from other sites, use communication widgets, create and embed podcasts, upload audio and video to the site, manipulate and edit images, and access RSS feeds. I think I might have left out a few things, but well... I learned a lot. This part of our assessment was a lot more engaging for me than the first half and I really think that small groups are better than large groups in online learning. This project was motivating and creative. I'm not sure it was motivating because of the group aspect, or because of the creative element. For me, probably the opportunity to be creative is most important. I expected the collaborative aspect to be more difficult than it actually was, and all the members of my team were very easy to work with. I think one good thing about collaborative projects like this one is that it enables participants to reveal their own skills within a group framework. Each member can do what they are good at doing, and the result is somehow greater than the sum of the parts.
Personal Refections - Tony
Firstly, thanks to Fiona, George and Nihaya for their fantastic contributions to this project. George is responsible for the overall look and feel of this website, and I think he did fantastically well. Fiona is what I call a 'project driver' who kept us all on-track, and often referred us back to the assessment criteria. Nihaya always had something positive to contribute to our discussions. Like George, I really enjoyed the collaborative aspect of the project. I will quite miss our Tuesday night Skypechat sessions. I did find that some aspects of the project were very time consuming. For example, editing of Wikispaces is not difficult, but it can be a bit laborious fiddling with formatting etc. It was also difficult to keep the content concise, because there is such a vast pool of information out there. On the other hand, there is not yet a significant body of rigorous teaching research backing the value of some CMC technologies in primary and secondary education (Skype for example). Nevertheless, I hope to incorporate the concepts we covered into my teaching in future.
Personal Reflection- Nihaya
We worked as a collaborative team where each of us examined how one type of new technology can enhance language learning outside the classroom. We shared ideas together and references. We decided to meet online every week until we finished the project.
In the beginning I was not sure of what we were doing. But eventually things came clearer when we all discussed the topic together. Fiona came up with the idea and we all thought it was a good one. Having the divided tasks between us was a very good way of collaborating. We all put an effort. I had help from my colleagues while I was sometimes stuck. We used emails to communicate as well as online chat and calling.
The wiki was our space to present our findings. To me, having a space online where I could see what my other team members were doing was a helpful thing. Seeing them do their tasks has helped to motivate me more to look for more things. I had in mind that I was not the only one doing this task and I needed to do well in order for others to succeed. It was not easy doing the task as all of us live in different countries and have different times. Looking for references was a bit hard for me but my colleagues suggested sites that they thought were useful so I looked at them and used them. I felt I was not alone all along. I would like to thank George who gave me so much guidance in how to fix my mistakes, Fiona for always reminding us to be on task and Tony who helped me a lot with my references.
Personal reflection - Fiona
Apart from the initial stress of feeling like we were all looking for ‘dates’ this assignment has been a really enjoyable and productive one. We were all keen to make this project relevant and useful to our daily teaching contexts and I think we are all quite proud that our wiki is a reference that will continue to be a great resource for us all as well as a reminder of the exciting potential of new technologies. This unit initially felt quite overwhelming for me as I have always felt a bit technologically challenged. However, this collaborative experience was empowering and has been a terrific learning experience for me and I thank George, Nihaya and Tony for making this last assignment of my masters such a positive one. I’m not sure when it disappeared, but during this assignment I have lost the kneejerk, fearful reaction to an ICT challenge that I don’t immediately understand. As group members we have worked well together, achieving a good balance between us – all of us receptive to and appreciative of others’ contributions. Thanks guys.